The Simpleness of Love
by MercuryMoon
Summary: Love was never meant to be simple, especially for the homunculi. Were they even capable of that sacred feeling? If they were soulless, how could they feel? Were they even capable of redemption?
1. Chapter One

Envy, Lust, and Gluttony have always intrigued me the most out of the FMA characters. Therefore, I have decided to do a fic centered on those three. It will take place from about ep. 40 to the end of the show, and well.. I'll let you figure out the pairing yourself. Also! The first two chapters in my opinion are not very good and I plan on rewriting them when the story is completed. In my opinion, it starts getting good in the third chapter so.. please stick around until at least the third chapter xD

A warning to those of you who don't like Gluttony.. I have a very different opinion of him than most people. You'll see just how different.. soon (haha).

_Disclaimer: FMA and all its characters belong to its original creators._

**The Simpleness of Love **

_I am a simple man. Even I realize this. However, I am not capable of declaring my love for someone, even to he__r, she who was most precious to me__. She occupied my thoughts day and night, but I could never say those words to her. They were simple ones, not so complicated that not even I couldn't say them. No... the only way I could express my growing affection was to be by her side, backing her up whenever she needed it. I could do nothing when another took her away from me, __said__ what I could not bring myself to say, and stole her heart. _

_I could do nothing when everything spiraled out of control. Like always, I was helpless, unable to do a single thing. I berated myself for my weakness, but I couldn't win, couldn't convince the Sin inside of me to shut up and follow the lucid part of me. _

_It was that weakness led to her death, the death of the woman I loved more than anything. No matter how much I cared for her, there was nothing I could do to help her when she needed me most. _

_I could only watch. Watch, because that was the only thing I was capable of when it came to anyone else other than myself. Because I was too much of a coward to step forward and back her up in front of everyone else. I was too afraid of the consequences. _

_And now, even though I had learned my lesson, it was too late. Because when I could have done something, could have changed her fate, I hadn't. And so I would have to suffer the consequences for as long as I lived. _

_Which I could tell wouldn't be long now. My mind was already beginning to slip away. I was slowly becoming the person everyone believed me to be: a simpering, fat, idiot who could barely even begin to speak for himself. I was retreating into myself, and I never wanted to come out again. The only thing I had left were my memories, and even they were beginning to disappear, consumed by my Sin. _

_Well. I wouldn't let them. Because they were all I had left of her._

**Chapter One**

In Lior, the city of recent turmoil, two figures stood overlooking the capital city like they always did. The moon hung high above them in the black blanket that was the night, and the two figures' shadows stretched long before them until they mixed together to become one. Lust, the woman, easily blended into the darkness with her raven hair and slinky black dress. Her manicured nails, painted black, shone softly in the light of the moon. A hand was to her chin as she stood thinking, and her eyes, a hard violet, flitted all over the place as she plotted hidden thoughts.

The man at her side could have been mistaken as an oaf from first sight. His thick arms hung uselessly at his side and his round white eyes were blank. He was chubby, but it didn't matter, for out of the Seven Sins, he was Gluttony. A mouth that could eat anything and everything was what he had for his power. He could eat whatever and whenever he wanted. That was what distinguished him from the other Homunculi, artificial humans created during human transmutation. Each of them had their own special abilities, but lacked a true soul in exchange for their gifts. They were named after the Seven Deadly Sins according to why they were created. Because Dante, their leader, had required a way of storing the Philosopher's Stone, human Gluttony had been killed and resurrected to who he was now. Lust on the other hand, had been created out of love, resurrected by an Ishbalite who wished to be reunited with his beloved. But no matter how each of the seven homunculi was created, it was all their quest to find and use the Philosopher's Stone so they could become human.

For some however, revenge was the reason. Their names did come from the sin of why they had been created after all, and that wasn't something the homunculi could forget easily. Envy for one was fiercely envious of his half-brothers, even if they were brothers in spirit only. No one quite remembered why he had been created in the first place, but because Envy was his name, Lust figured it had something to do with Hohenheim being jealous of death or maybe even Dante. But what did it matter? Envy was someone else, not her, why was she even thinking of him?

They were extremely close to creating the Stone now, Lust thought to herself, continuing her musing. The scarred man from Ishbal possessed the power they needed and the hatred that accompanied the creation. Scar, was that his name? Lust wasn't too sure, but names weren't that important in her world. She wanted so much to be human and to be rid of her desire for so many things. Sometimes she didn't even know why though; was it becomes Dante, their leader told them this? Or was it because she was tired of her life? It gnawed at her all the time and consumed much of her mind. Gluttony, she knew, always devoured more than he wanted, which was what he had received when becoming a Homunculi. She almost pitied him, but she could never tell if he actually did want to eat as much as he did or hated it.

Her ears caught the soft landing of someone behind them and she turned. _Speak of the Devil_, she thought amusedly, _and he will appear._ It was a human saying, but one that, despite her dislike for humans, certainly fit well. Lust smiled wryly, her black bangs almost covering one violet eye. "Envy. How kind of you to drop by."

A young man of about eighteen was crouched behind them on the wall. Moonlight silhouetted him against the building, and dark green hair flowed down his head with parts of it covering his face. A black bandana with a red symbol etched on it was tied around his head. Clay, stated the three dots positioned into a triangle. Clay, the malleable substance that could be turned into just about anything, just like Envy. It matched him perfectly, although Lust wondered how he could have made such a reference to himself. After all, humans were the masters of clay. By wearing such a symbol, was he referring to the fact that humans were his master? He had been created by one, and he was currently serving a human, but Lust knew Envy was too volatile to live like that. Perhaps another reason then?

"You caught me," Envy said with a light chuckle. His violet eyes passed over the other man, but he ignored him completely. After all, the oaf was too stupid to figure anything out for himself. Also, he was ugly. Envy was disgusted by his beady eyes and large nose. They looked disgusting on Gluttony's fat body, and he hated even thinking about it. Even if Gluttony had the ability to speak properly, Envy wouldn't have been able to respect him because his looks were so disturbing. And on top of all of that, Gluttony was bald, too, missing the beautiful crop of hair he, Envy, had. Envy couldn't for the life of him figure out who wanted to resurrect such a man, even if the man was for storage only. Why not a more beautiful creature? Sure, he understood that only something ugly would not be missed, but still. Did Dante _have _to choose the ugliest being she could have possibly found? He certainly would never have chosen Gluttony's vessel as a sin.

Neither could he figure out why Lust and Gluttony were always together. Lust, with her beauty, her craftiness, her... lust for anything that caught her attention. She was intense, attractive, and frightening. He loved her power, which had given her the nickname, "Ultimate Lance" She was a better companion for Envy than Sloth, who always clung to Pride anyway. Hmph. Lame. Sloth was just like a human in that matter.

Lust smiled craftily and despite himself, Envy felt a rush go through him. She was indeed a devious one. He would have to watch out for her, for she excited him in ways his unlucky victims never did.

"So what do you want, Envy?" she asked.

Envy raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think so little of me that whenever I show up, all you wonder about is what my motive is?" He brushed back his hair, deciding to throw her off. "How are you today?"

She was taken aback, he could tell. Usually he didn't concern himself with the other Homunculi unless he wanted something from them, and she knew this. It was uncommon for him to make chitchat with them. Envy was too high above everyone else. After a brief second however, she was back to her usual composed self. "Gluttony and I traveled around today. Visited Lior to see how the city was doing. That place is a mess now," she added as an afterthought. "You?"

"Wrath and I explored the area around Lior. Checked some places over, that kind of thing. A few chimeras were wandering around, so we killed them."

"How interesting," Lust replied. Not really, but she felt like she had to continue the conversation anyway. Now that she had started, she might as well continue.

Envy rolled his eyes. "You're kidding, right? Compared to how things used to be?" Damn. Everything was so mundane in his life. He needed excitement, and he knew Lust could offer it to him if he asked. After all, she hadn't been given that name for no reason. However, he said nothing, mainly because he didn't want her to think that he _liked_ her. Not that way at least. He had a reputation to uphold.

Lust smiled, thinking back to earlier days where she had stirred up war and when she and Gluttony had killed Conero, that cursed priest who had failed at the easy task they had assigned him. It just went to show that one could never rely on humans. "Are you still playing the part of that priest?" she asked.

Envy snorted derisively. "Nah, I let him die. It's just too boring and ugly a part for cute lil' me!"

Lust snickered at that, laughing to herself at the light lilt in the other's voice when he had concluded his sentence. "Envy, you're just lazy."

"Lazy, lazy!" Gluttony mimicked.

Envy glanced at Gluttony in disgust. "Playing that part won't help me in my goal in any way, so why should I do it just to satisfy that old woman?" He shrugged angrily. "Besides, people kept on coming to me for help, and you know how much I hate that, especially from weak and stupid humans!" He muttered some more under his breath, but Lust couldn't quite catch what he said and decided it would be better not to ask him about it.

It was a known fact that Envy hated humans after all. He hated the fact that they often let emotion overrun sense, hated the fact that they flipped so quickly from side to side. He saw them as weak and dependent on one another. At the same time, he was jealous of them because they had so much while he so little. It was almost a love-hate relationship for Envy; love because he was obsessed with them, hate because he couldn't stand being with them for longer than ten minutes before killing them. Envy did not have a patient or tolerant temperament, and it showed. If one wanted to rile the homunculus up, all one had to do was mention humans, especially a certain golden-haired man, and Envy would immediately be thrown into such a great rage that his features became unrecognizable and his strength increased threefold.

A smirk came over Lust's face as she remembered all of this. "Sometimes, you need to do what you hate in order to get things accomplished. If you continue to wreck havoc, the Elric brothers will feel even worse for the horrors they've brought to that city by killing Conero in the first place."

Envy stroked his chin and glanced at Lust. "You're a smart chick, aren't you? I could do that, but it would be too much trouble." He jabbed a finger in her direction. "However, remind me to consult you next time when a situation like that arises again."

Lust lifted up her shoulders and arms in a "what can I say?" manner. Then she curled her fingers together and turned her wrists out. "I'm brilliant, what else is there to it?"

Again, Envy's eyes slid to Gluttony's for a brief moment. _At least your brilliance makes up for your idiot companion,_ he thought._ If he ever came up with anything like that, I would seal myself. Seriously. I can't believe you even hang out with him._

To Gluttony's face however, Envy said nothing. He figured there was no point because it wasn't like the homunculus was going to understand him anyway. Besides, he didn't want to break his conversation with Lust, not when they were on such a roll. It was only more proof that the two of them were perfect for each other.

The two of them talked a little longer, but finally Envy said he had to leave. They bid their farewells, but for the first time, his eyes lingered on hers for a few seconds. Then the moment broke, and without another word, he left, leaping from roof to roof until he had been swallowed by the night.

Gluttony dumbly watched the remaining homunculus as drool dripped from his open mouth. His blank eyes looked imploringly at her. "Lust? What are we going to do now?"

Lust hadn't taken her eyes from the direction Envy had taken. A blush had risen in her normally pale face, and she stroked her arm thoughtfully. "Envy..." she said softly. "What an interesting person, don't you think?"

Gluttony didn't respond, for his mind had drifted yet again, and his thumb was in his mouth as he sucked it. "I'm hungry," he finally said.

Lust laughed gently and touched his shoulder. "Let's find some food for you then, shall we?"

x x x x x

_The touch of her hand on my shoulder burned my skin, but what was I supposed to do? I couldn't control my urge to consume things whether or not I was hungry. How was I supposed to compare myself to Envy? He was strong and handsome, could do things I couldn't do. Why wouldn't Lust be attracted to him? Me, I was lunky and waddled, almost barreled my way through everything. Compared to him, I was nothing. _

_But then again, I was the one that Lust had chosen to partner with. Why had she chosen me anyways? I had always wondered, but did not think my place to ask. It still wasn't in my eyes. Was it because I had been one of the first Homunculi to greet her? Why did I care so much about her attraction to Envy anyway? If she liked him, I couldn't do anything about it. He was our leader after all. But still, in my cold self, I felt a stab of pain at the thought of the two embracing. _

Tell her. You must tell her before it's too late.

_My mouth opened. The words were almost at the tip of my tongue, but drool suddenly poured out and I couldn't make them come out. Quickly I stuck my thumb in my mouth in an effort to stop the pour. Lust was talking, but I concentrated on stopping the drool. When she stopped however, what I had been about to say was wiped from my mind. By the time I remembered, I had delayed too long, saying the first thing that popped into my mind as she waited for my response. Hungry? Wonderful phrase to say to one's love. _

_What I wouldn't have given to rewind that moment. To give her a better view of myself, the way I really was, not the starving cannibal I always seemed to be. I couldn't say what I wanted to say now. But was it going to be too late when I finally said them? _

_Lust was moving on, and my head was tired of thinking. For some reason, I could never focus my thoughts for long. My moments of senility in my own mind were always short bouts that appeared at random. Because this bout was about to end, there was nothing more I could do. I followed after her lovely figure and stuck my thumb in my mouth. Another night. I would sort it all out another night. _


	2. Chapter Two

Whoa. It's been ages since I last added to this story. Guess I've been moving on to original work instead of fanfiction. Anyway.. hope anyone who's wanted to continue reading isn't too disappointed with this chapter!

**Chapter Two**

_If she were to be happy, I wouldn't care, I decided the next day. As long as I could love her from afar, it would be all right. I would force myself to grin when I saw her smiling at him. Even if my heart cried, I would force myself to not intervene. I didn't want to ruin her happiness, she who had done so much for me. _

_Part of me still wanted to blurt it all out, but I restrained that part of me. There was no way she could hold romantic feelings for me. She could only see me as a close companion. Nothing else._

**x x x x x**

What was that strange emotion that was creeping over her heart? She had been feeling it over the past two days, containing it in that hidden part of herself that she shielded from the world, safe from prying eyes. Lust hugged herself, uncertain, and traced patterns on her arm with one hand. How was it that she was feeling this way? It was different from the usual lust that overcame her. Perhaps it was what the humans called love? But that was impossible - the Homunculi could not feel such an emotion.

Gluttony lumbered over to her, seating himself clumsily next to her. He stuck out his feet and began tipping his head from side to side. They sat in silence for a while, finding no need to speak as it always was between the two. Several times he glanced over at her as if to speak, but Lust knew this was not the trust. He was always doing this, and she knew he was just reassuring himself that she was still by his side. At least that was what the blank look in his white eyes told her.

They had known each other for a long time, Lust thought. When she had first been created, Gluttony had been one of the first Homunculi she had met. They had melded their lives together easily, for when he couldn't speak, she could talk for him. At times, she even had to translate for him, but it didn't matter. Gluttony was like a little boy, never taking anything seriously, and Lust wondered if he ever would. Secretly she wondered if she knew her companion as well as she thought. It was true that he never said much and always thought of food first, but that could have been the influence of his Sin. Who was he under all of that? And more importantly, if he had had a different name, would he be this way?

"Lust, what do you want today?" Gluttony ventured almost childishly.

She wanted to see Envy again so she could work out her feeling, but she didn't want to tell Gluttony that. Instead, Lust smiled at her companion. "How about you choose today?"

"Umm... how about.." his voice trailed off as he looked around. "That way?"

Lust uncrossed her slender legs and stood. "Let's go then."

Together they leaped from building to building, running across the roofs in perfect sync. This was the kind of thing she enjoyed doing, feeling the wind blow through her hair, the refreshing breeze on her scalp. It was more to her liking than killing people, but she knew her orders. If she wanted to become human, she had to follow them. There was no other way. A part of her knew that she had changed, too. Before she had loved killing; now it made her sick. Was it because of the feelings of that alchemist who she had murdered when she had felt him sneaking too close to her heart?

The two of them stopped and jumped down, landing in an alley. Gluttony's leg knocked over a tin trashcan and sent its rotten contents spilling onto the floor. A fishy smell rose into the air, but they didn't care, because what did fish matter to them? They were even deader than the homunculi were.

Lust put a gloved finger to her lips and looked around alertly. "Quiet. Do you hear that, Gluttony?"

Gluttony slowly tilted his head and drool slid from his mouth. His mouth began to slide into a repulsive grin. "The Full Metal Boy and the scarred one are fighting," he said and sniffed the air. "They are using alchemy."

A smile came over Lust's face. "Is that so?"

Gluttony nodded mutely and wiped the spit from his face.

Lust stroked her chin with her long, tapered fingers. On her face was a devious expression. "Why don't we pay them a visit them?"

Again he nodded, and the pair took off again. Both of them were grinning deep down in their soulless bodies, for they could sense in their bones that the clash today would be a bloody one. And as homunculi, that meant it would be something enjoyable for them, for they enjoyed watching humans suffer.

It turned out that the two enemies were not at all difficult to find. Flashes of alchemy could be seen several buildings away, and it was easy to jump over there, for the flashes lighted their way and led them to their prey.

"There they are," she said softly, and the two landed on the ground. The Full Metal boy and Scar were fighting each other, and the boy had the advantage. Lust noted curiously that the boy's hair had been dyed a dark green. _'How interesting,'_ she thought and wondered if it was because he was trying to blend in with the locals. Most of them were dark-haired, and his bright blonde would certainly have stood out.

Just when the boy was about to stab Scar, Lust shot out her hand and extended her nails, piercing through his knife. The child started in surprise and jerked back, staring at his arm. Realization hit him, and he whirled around. "Homunculus!"

Lust smiled, keeping her nails stuck through the boy's metal arm. "That's right. Nice to meet you, I am Lust."

"I'm Gluttony," her companion chimed in.

"What are you doing here?" the boy demanded. Slowly he lowered his arm, and Lust lowered her hand with him.

Searching through her mind, Lust remembered his name. Edward Elric. That's what it was. She tossed her hair back. "What a lovely night, don't you agree?" she asked, pointedly not answering his question.

Scar got up and stared at her. "Why do you look like her?" he asked.

She stared at him and their eyes, so similar in appearance, met. "What do you mean?"

"You look like my brother's lover!" he yelled. "Why!"

"What?" Lust said, not quite understanding. She took a step forward.

Slowly Scar pulled out a silver necklace. "Do you remember this at all?" he asked.

Lust said nothing.

"Do you remember this! This trinklet my brother gave you!" Scar shouted and thrust the necklace out, flashing the trinket on its chain before her eyes. His mouth twisted. The expression on his face, the pure hatred…

Lust froze. Her nails were sucked back into her hand, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Someone was calling out to her, whispering her name over and over again in her ear. She felt someone's strong arms around her body and..

"Lust?"

Too many memories were slamming into her head. A strange man embracing her, the same person staring distraughtly down at.. her? Was that dark-skinned woman herself? She had seen that woman before.. back when that alchemist had.. A sharp pain went through her and she jerked.

"Lust!"

There it was, that voice again! Now there was a touch of urgency in it. Was that her name? But it couldn't be! Her name was- She couldn't concentrate, couldn't keep herself alert! All she could see where those images flashing more and more rapidly through her head.

She couldn't.. she couldn't...

Gluttony watched in horror as Lust fell forward. Frantically he reached forward to catch her and only just barely managed to seize her before she hit the ground. Her hair toppled all over her head until he could see the nape of her neck. Her pale skin, cold to the touch, invited eating, and Gluttony had to force himself not to chomp down. He had to fight that feral side of him in order to protect Lust. But where could he take her? Where could he take his love? His mind wasn't used to thinking this quickly. At a loss of not knowing what to do, he whirled around. "I hate you," he screamed at the Full Metal boy and the scarred one. Then off he ran, roaring incessantly. A wall stood before him, and he leaped up. Frantically he chewed a hole through it. He had to bring her back to safety, he had to save Lust!

**x x x x x**

__

_I was going to kill them! I was going to kill those bastards who hurt Lust! How dare they paralyze her like that? How dare they! My mind raced around as I ran through the tunnel I had created. Where could I take her? Back to our haven? Back to Envy perhaps? I hesitated at that. I didn't want him to be her savior. I wanted her to recognize **me** as a man, someone she could love. _

_No, I finally decided. I would take her somewhere else. Away from the other Homunculi. Away from anyone who could steal her heart away from me. _


	3. Chapter Three

I'm sorry.. I seem to update every six months. Blech. Anyway, hope this chapter is worth the wait. I also re-uploaded the previous two chapters, so they're improved now. x.x

**Chapter Three**

Except for the occasional lonely call of a mourning dove that sliced through the fading night, the city was silent. The sun had just begun to peep over the morning horizon, and the breeze slicing through the air was cool. A calm soaked the entire region.

A soft pounding could be heard in the distance. The mourning dove looked up just in time to see a giant figure run dumpily past her. She sensed his evil and with a shudder of relief, she ducked her head into her wing and wept.

Gluttony raced on the rooftops, lugging Lust on his shoulder. Her body bounced as he ran. Something was wrong. She was supposed to be awake by now as the effects of the attack should not have lasted this long. He had never seen it like this. What had happened when the trinket flashed before her eyes? Not a single remnant remained of his own body, so he would never know the experience. He could only satisfy himself by imagining himself in Lust's place and feeling her pain.

An abandoned building loomed ahead of him, and he instinctively knew that it would be the best place to take Lust. With a mighty jump, he soared over the wall and landed like a fat cat on the ground. Lust tumbled off his shoulders, and he resorted to carrying her the rest of the way into the building.

Inside it was murky, but it didn't matter, because he could still see well in the blackness. The room that he took her into was dark and musty, and he would have smelled dust if he were capable of smelling. A single curtain waved in the broken window next to a ripped mattress. Gluttony gently laid her on the mattress and then sprawled on the ground.

He didn't know what to do. When the previous Lust had fallen into this condition seventy years ago, he had been unable to do anything. She had died in his arms, killed by Envy because she had tried to defect, and he had been helpless, unable to prevent a thing. Even Dante, the one gathering the homunculi, had sat idly and watched. When she had been killed, Dante had simply set about creating another homunculi, a perfect one this time that would end up being called Pride. In his disgust however, Gluttony had refused the partner. Dante had laughed and decided that this new creature would then take Gluttony and Lust's old position of stirring up trouble to create the Philosopher's Stone for her. He on the other hand, had taken to wandering across the country, devouring the unfortunate who stumbled into his path. When the Lust that lay before him was created roughly fifty years later, the sense of emptiness left him, and he was happy again. But now..

Gluttony's hands clutched at nothing. His stubby fingers clawed at the dusty air. What was he supposed to do? Should he go for help rather than watch her die? He wondered if the precious stones were churning inside Lust's body, just itching to be thrown out as soon as she stepped into an alchemy circle.

An alchemy circle! Frantically Gluttony looked around. He didn't know why anyone would draw an alchemy circle in a wreck like this, but one never knew. A torrent of relief rushed through him when he saw there was none.

He reached over and stroked one cold cheek with a fat finger. The glutton in him longed to eat this helpless woman, but his sane mind forced it down. He would never eat Lust. She was too beautiful to be devoured by him. Even if he were ordered to, he would eat himself first and enjoy every last bite. The person he would protect with his life was Lust, and he had decided that on their very first meeting.

"Who's there?" a familiar voice called from outside, and Gluttony jerked up. Envy? What was he doing here? No! He had come to this forlorn place because he had been almost certain it would be the last place Envy would come to!

"Come out, I can taste your despair out here!" Envy shouted. "This is **my** home, not yours. Reveal yourself or I'll come in for you!"

Gluttony pictured the other homunculi licking his lips with his blood red tongue. Suddenly anguish filled him down to the deepest core of his soulless self. He was unable to do anything, and with his far more vastly experience, Envy would probably know what to do. With a growl, Gluttony smashed the window and rolled out. Glass cut into his skin, but he didn't feel the pain; he only felt the blood leaking from the wound and sliding down to hit the floor. He gave a keening cry and fell to his knees against the rising dust.

Envy laughed when he saw who it was. There had been no need to threaten after all and lie. Gluttony was such an idiot that all he had to do was say he had fresh meat for the man. "Gluttony? Where is Lust?" Envy asked teasingly. "Did she abandon you for a better man?"

Dumb as Gluttony's mind was, his desperation still managed to shine through his white eyes. Envy's own eyes widened when he realized the meaning of Gluttony's cry. "Lust?" he asked urgently. "Something's wrong with Lust?"

"The Full Metal!" Gluttony roared. "I hate him! He and the Scarred one did this!"

Envy leaped through the broken window and rolled to a rest next to where Lust lay. His searching eyes took in her stillness, and his hands began twitching. Of all the deadly things that oaf could have gotten Lust into, it had to be the worst one possible? When Gluttony stopped his cry and lumbered into the room, Envy slapped him. "You stupid bastard! Why didn't you do something earlier?" he demanded.

Gluttony didn't respond, angering Envy further. He punched him in the stomach, then kicked him over. Gluttony's body rolled across the floor and came to a rest with a 'bam' as he hit the wall. "Why the hell does she hang around you? You can't even protect her!" Envy flung his arm out at Lust's motionless figure. "Look at her now! _Look at her!_"

Gluttony slowly rose to his feet and looked at the floor. "I.. I love her," he said simply. There. He had finally said it.

Envy just stared at him in disbelief. "What the hell do you know about love? You're a freaking bastard, a retard! You don't deserve someone like her!" He marched up to Gluttony and seized his ear. "Get this? Stay away from her! I don't want to see you within five feet of her **ever again**!" A cruel smile crept onto his face. "I'll bring you fresh meat everyday if you'll just follow that order."

Gluttony stared blankly at Envy, and the older homunculi laughed. Everything was taken care of. With his hungering stomach, Gluttony would leap at the chance to always lounge at their haven and never have to leave again to search for food. It was an irresistible offer, Envy knew. The only thing he disliked about it was that now he was going to have to actually locate the food. But it didn't matter. Gluttony would probably forget about it anyway. It was only the spoken promise, the actual offer that was important. Envy knew that promises were meant to be broken, and he certainly intended on that happening to **this** one. He would sooner kill himself, no, kill Gluttony, than act as his hunting dog. But Gluttony didn't know that. Gluttony was too dumb to see past his closest meal. This Envy was certain it was a fact.

Without a word, Gluttony turned and left, leaving a triumphant Envy. Envy's laughter followed the retreating homunculus out of the room.

x x x x x

_How well do you know me, Envy? How dare you attempt bribing me like this? What makes you think I cannot experience love while you can? I love her just as much as you do. Because you sensed my despair, you found your way to her. If I did not love her, would you have felt us still? This feeling eating at me is far stronger than any other hunger I have ever felt. Do you even know why I left? It was because I couldn't stand to see your leering face as you thought I accepted your stinking offer. _

_You who try to steal her from me. Do you not realize the depth of my feelings? How dare you accuse me of not loving her? I, who had been by her side almost every day since we had met? _

_She had saved me many times, and I had returned the favor to her just as many times. We were an inseparable pair and because of the Full Metal child, the scarred one, and Envy, we were to be forced apart. But would Lust even care? Would she be relieved to be free of the burden that was me? _

_I slammed my fists onto the ground in anger. They all took me for a blundering fool who leaped at the first chance of food. No one understood me, not even Lust. Was not love supposed to be understanding? She didn't feel the same way about me however, so there was no way she was supposed to know my heart and mind. No one ever said love was simple. No one ever said it did not cause the pain it did now. I hit my fists against the ground again. No one ever said love was simple._


	4. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

Envy stared into the shadows. His violet eyes expanded in and out. For the first time in his life, he felt uncertain. Perhaps he shouldn't have taunted Gluttony like that, but he couldn't help it. The other just repulsed him too much. Shudders were sent down his back every time Gluttony's blank white eyes met his own. Something inside him just forced him to be so cruel to the fat idiot.

He knelt down next to Lust's side. Her eyes were still closed, and he wondered what the hell could have caused this. He even wondered if he should simply put her out of her misery, but he decided against it. If he killed her now, what happened to Greed would happen to Lust: her body would tense up and freeze in the most grotesque position possible, and in a whirlwind of dust, she would melt into a pool of red blood. Not something he wanted to see at the moment, especially to one as beautiful as she.

On an impulse, he reached forward with the back of his hand and stroked her cold cheek. His hand slid down her face, and he raised it again, this time turning his hand around to cup her face. Her luscious black locks trailed down her revealed shoulders, and he bent closer to her. Envy could almost feel a strange warmth come over him. It sickened him, but at the same time, kindled a passion deep inside him. He glanced at her still face, and the moment passed as quickly as the heat vanished from him.

Envy stood and began walking in a slow circle around the room once. A lighter version of the despair Gluttony had felt was infecting Envy now. He hated it. He was Envy! He was not supposed to feel despair! The only emotions he was supposed to be feeling were anger and hatred. He should be concentrating on tracking down that bastard's son! Why was he here with.. Lust? She was nothing to him, she wasn't supposed to mean anything to him! Yes, she was beautiful and evil, but what did it matter? He existed on this earth only to kill his damned father! How he longed to stick a knife through that man's insides and slowly twist it, enjoying the tortured screams that would rip through the air. It was what he should be doing now instead of hanging around watching a woman who would probably never open her eyes again.

Envy clenched his fist and punched the wall. Debris showered down all around him, falling in his hair, falling to the ground. His breath came out in short, quick pants. He wasn't supposed to be feeling this way. He was stronger than this, and he knew it! After all, hadn't he already gone through the agony of being abandoned hundreds of years ago? Why did the feelings rushing through him now hurt more than those?

He whirled around. "Goddamnit," he hissed under his breath. "I will **not** be controlled!"

But no one was there to hear his cry. He was alone, save the exception of the object causing his confusion. Slowly he opened his clenched fists and stared at them. Dark blood was trickling down, dripping down into a small puddle gathering at his feet. A strange smile crept over his face. So. A part of him was still alive then, despite him being the monster he was now. If this were true, it would explain some of his inner turmoil, the turmoil that he would have to break down and split into a million pieces that he could then fling into the world and destroy it and all the evils that it represented to him.

Envy glanced at Lust one last time, and his eyes also scanned the deserted house. It seemed to be built impregnable, so he figured she would be safe until he returned. Until then though, he would leave, go on a journey that would take him far away from her. He would leave so he could clear his mind and return to the singlemindness that had always been a part of him until now.

x x x x x

_I envied humans. They didn't have to suffer or go through what we do. Yes, they had their own troubles, but it was nothing compared to ours. They didn't understand us, and we could barely even begin to understand them. Why did they resurrect us if they ended up abandoning us anyway? Were they trying to bring us through a second death? _

_Because of them, we were in their world now. Because of them, we couldn't die. But it didn't matter to me. All that mattered was the death of the man who had created **me.** What right did he have to rip me away from a peaceful death and bring me back to this hellish world? Once he had told me it was out of love, but I knew it to be a lie. If he truly loved, would he have abandoned me because I first appeared to be a monster? If I were truly his beloved son, would he have done what he had? If he had been trying to resurrect the idiot Full Metal one and his younger brother, would my so-called father have left them to die? _

_I laughed. What did it matter to me? I didn't have time to philosophize and try to understand humans. I had other things to do. _

x x x x x

Coldness dominated her body. She shivered. The same person who had been calling to her earlier was renewing his cries. She could feel his presence through the coldness, and it was rekindling her soul. All of a sudden, feeling rushed back into her body, and she jerked awake.

The room was dark, shadowed by a stillness that resembled death. Lust rose to her feet. Her head was still disorientated, but it was slowly clearing. She was alone, she saw. For a moment, she wondered where Gluttony was. He must have been the one who had brought her to this forlorn place. She smiled. It was like him, she realized. He had always been indirectly protecting her. Perhaps he was not as stupid as he seemed. Again, she wondered how well she really knew her companion.

She walked around the room in a slow circle and ended up at the door. A window lay to its right three feet away, and there was broken glass all around it. Lust was careful to walk around it. Instinctively, she knew it all to have been caused by Gluttony. A flicker of worry crept over her as she wondered if he was injured. Then she shook it off. With his thick skin, he wouldn't notice a few cuts here and there, and surprisingly, she found herself glad.

Her eyes rested on a broken part of the plaster wall. As she inspected it, she saw that it couldn't be Gluttony. Was it Envy then? At the thought of her name, a rush unlike any other went through her.

Love. What a strange emotion it was. She couldn't be in love with Envy though; she barely knew or understood him, despite working with him for so long. Besides, she doubted she could really feel and recognize the stirrings of love. Pride was the only one of their group who was married, and she wondered if he truly loved his wife or if it was all a display for the world to see. Dante had said he was the perfect homunculi, so did that mean he had feelings that she only knew shadows of?

Lust supposed she would never know. For a while now, the search for the Philosopher's Stone hadn't been giving her an adrenaline rush. The feelings of that alchemist had been so strong that she had been unable to shake them off. All of a sudden, she didn't know if she wanted to be free of them. It seemed as if she was thinking clearer than she had been ever since she had been reborn. Was it also because of the influence of the necklace the scarred one had thrust at her? He had claimed to know her. How then was he related to her past self?

She had to know. She had to search him out and force the answers out of him. If he wouldn't tell her, she would kill him, and the nagging voice in her head would be gone. Long had it been questioning her actions, and because of Scar, it was intensifying.

Lust shot her nails out and widened the hole Gluttony had made. She took a step forward and emerged from the shadows. She was out now, and she was going to find some answers to the multitude of questions raging through her head.

x x x x x

_Why do we live? Why are we here in this world? We are supposed to be dead, but by some unlucky stroke of fate, here we are. We're outcasts, hated by the very people who created us. We represent death to them, unforgivable sin. Is it because of the sacrifices they made to bring us back? Do they hate us because we have taken something that means more to them than we do to them? Or is it because they fear us for our monstrosities? _

_They wonder why we want to be human. It is so we can die, I think. I don't want to continue living the shell of a life I have right now. I want to be free again, to burst free of the walls surrounding my soulless body. I think there was a man I once loved. Hazy images of his face dance before my eyes sometimes. I see us together and wonder at the simpleness of our relationship. Things back then had been so wonderfully clear. I must have loved him as much as he loved me, or there would be no pain on my face as he embraced me for the last time. Was he the one who tried to resurrect me? Is he still alive now? Would he accept me or would he toss me away, renouncing the love he once swore he had for me? _

_And what would I do?_

_

* * *

_Seeing as I'll be out of town for the rest of the year, I figured I'd finish this chapter and upload it. Yay.. I didn't wait six months! XD And I would like to say thank you to everyone who's been following the story. :) 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to y'all!


	5. Chapter Five

Yep.. it's me again. Been five months since I last updated, but I had a _severe_ writer's block on this story. For five months, I had one line in this chapter. Finally yesterday I had the idea that I could show what was happening to all three of the homunculi as they wander by themselves and here is the product. Only two are shown, but that's ok. And hope it's not too disappointing!

**Chapter Five**

The black night's peace was deceptive. Although the humans in the city slept, the homunculi inhabiting it were restless. They were lost in their own minds, uncertain for the first time in their long lives.

A lumbering figure collapsed on a rooftop and gave a keening cry that echoed throughout the city. No one save the homunculus himself heard it however, because it was a cry that he made inside his heart, a cry that spelled out his hopelessness, his pain, his despair. And at the root of it, the acknowledgement that there was nothing he could do about his situation.

He wanted to cry, but there was no water in his body save for the saliva in his mouth that was even right now drooling down and creating a puddle. Dully the homunculus wondered if he could take that as his tears. He was Gluttony after all, and perhaps he wasn't meant to cry. After all, how many people had he hurt? It didn't matter now, but the homunculus realized now that each person he killed took away the same number of tears that they cried when he killed them.

It was saddening, but he couldn't take back his actions. At this moment, Gluttony made the decision to never take a life again. He would fight against the Sin inside himself as hard as he could, and if he had to, he would eat himself instead of the human. The entire business of gathering the Philosopher's Stone sickened him now. Because of the Stone, his Lust was injured, and he was now Envy's pet to be laughed at. Cold fury swept through Gluttony as he remembered Envy's taunting words. Was there anything he could do about that homunculus? He knew the answer to be no, because Envy was the first homunculus created and had Dante on his side while he.. Gluttony knew that he himself was also thought of Dante's pet.

He laughed at himself. What was he really then? Just the entire "family's" pet? Was that how they all truly thought of him? He knew he was despised by Envy and that the rest looked down on him because of his inability to control the Gluttony inside of him. Then again, did any of them really believe that he was sentient inside?

No, Gluttony thought sadly. Not even Lust believed that. They all believed him to have the intelligence of a four-year old at best. It was a depressing thought, but whenever he tried to show them otherwise, drool would slip out and wipe out any words he'd try to say. Then whomever he'd just been speaking to would laugh and walk off. Only Lust, only her out of everyone he had ever met, had never laughed.

Gluttony's huge mouth softened into a smile, one that looked strange on his doughy face. Lust. She had always been kind to him. They had made a connection the very first time they had met. It hadn't happened with the previous Lust, but the current Lust? Yes. He had a theory that the Sin inside Lust was one that had been passed on from his first Lust. After all, Lust One had been reluctant to get to know when they had first met, but after a period of time, she accepted him and became his friend. Her feelings could just disappear like that, could they?

But then she had died, killed by Envy. And many years later, she had manifested again in Lust Two. This was something Gluttony fiercely believed in, because when Envy led Lust Two to the homunculi, a connection had been forged between the two almost immediately. Gluttony liked to believe it to be as soon as their eyes, one violet, the other dull white, met and held onto each other for a full minute.

It was a moment that Gluttony cherished still, one that he thought about often in troubled times. It was one he thought of now.

x x x x x

In another part of the city, Lust was running on the rooftops, her mind racing even quicker than her feet were moving. Was this the right thing to do? Should she search out Scar? What if he tried to kill her again? Would she be fast enough to tell him she didn't want to fight?

Then Lust realized that if she doubted herself, she would never be fast enough. That was why before she had always been able to kill people so quickly – she had trusted her own skills and never questioned them. And that was what she would have to do now. She would have to trust herself and trust in the fact that she would instinctively know what she was doing.

But what if he didn't listen to her even after she tried to explain things? Then what would she do? Would she simply kill him as she had done to others in the past or would she let herself be killed by him? Lust knew without having to be told that the memories that had shot through her were changing her in ways she had never comprehended. For good or bad though? That was the real question.

She was becoming more human; there was no doubt about that. Before she had always despised humans because they were so weak and always let themselves be controlled by their emotions. Now however, she realized that perhaps it took a lot of strength to be controlled that way, when the mind pleaded to be rational. Was the mind stronger then or emotions? For her, the mind had always been stronger because she had never felt any real feelings. Now that they were beginning to stir inside her however, she wondered if her feelings would grow stronger than her rational side and even take over the Sin side of herself. Was that possible? Could it really happen?

Lust smiled. Perhaps that would be the new challenge she would take onto herself. She even wondered if she could somehow bring back the person she had once been. Maybe then she could really feel love. Maybe then she could really begin to understand her companions. There was someone she wanted to understand, and it wasn't just Envy.

As she ran, she began to hear a cry in her mind. The voice sounded familiar, almost like Gluttony's. She began to run faster, and soon she could see a misshapen figure sitting on the rooftop several buildings away. It was unmoving. A sense of urgency filled her, and she thrust her nails into the floor she was on now and vaulted to the next building. This she repeated several times until she had jumped over to Gluttony.

"Gluttony," she said anxiously. "Gluttony, what is wrong?"

The homunculus dully looked up at her and his mouth suddenly curled into a huge grin. "Lust!" he cried happily. His hands reached up and pawed at the air. "Lust!"

"That's right," Lust said softly as a sense of relief washed over her. "It's me." Gently she took his hand. "Let's go home."

x x x x x

_She had found me after all. She had heard the cry in my heart. Against everything I had believed, she had heard me, the real me. Was she accepting me for the person I was? Would she be the first to truly understand me? _

_ It did not have to be that kind of love, I realized. I knew now that I didn't care if she loved me romantically. I just wanted her to love me. If she loved me as a friend, as she did now, I could be happy, since I could live through her love. Through her, I could be the person I wanted to be, not the person taken over by the Sin. _

_ When she took my hand, I knew everything would be all right. She would stand up to Envy for me, make him see how cruel he was. Perhaps she could change everyone then! Perhaps this was a turning point in my drudge of a life. Her acceptance of me was a signal that everyone else in our group would slowly begin to understand me. And once they understood me, perhaps the Sin in me would gradually subside and the real me could finally emerge. _

_ We walked, hand in hand, not for the first time. But for the first time, I felt a true peace. Things were finally going to get better._


	6. Chapter Six

Hey, guess what? Another chapter.. in less than a week, too! Big change from five months, huh? x.x By the way, I'm hoping you guys know which thought is which xD They've mostly been Gluttony, although there were one or two of Lust and Envy's each. The ones in this chapter are Lust and Gluttony.

And if you haven't noticed, this story is taking a turn from the original summary. Oh well.. that's ok.. right?

**Chapter Six**

The pair arrived in the underground city through a passage in the ground and entered the homunculi stronghold. There they were greeted by Sloth.

"Hello Lust, Gluttony," the youngest homunculus said with her eyes lowered. She had shed her secretary's costume and was now wearing a sleek midnight magenta silk dress similar to Lust's. The oroborous sign stood out boldly above her right breast, only partially covered by her medium-length black hair. "We did not expect the two of you to return so quickly," she continued.

"Have you seen Envy?" Lust asked.

Sloth shook her head. "Envy has not yet returned. Shall I inform you when he does?"

"Doesn't matter," Lust said. She motioned to Gluttony, and the two of them continued on.

The city was dead and had died long ago when Dante, the Homunculi's Creator, and Hohenheim, the Elric brothers' father, had sunk it long ago for its human ingredients. They had been trying to create the Philosopher's Stone that time, and the once magnificent city had been victim to their experiments. It had been a prosperous city once, one that bordered the desert. Now the only people wandering it were ghosts or the homunculi themselves.

They entered the largest mansion, a white, looming monster that stood out amongst its shyer neighbors. Once they were inside, the pair crossed a scarlet carpet that had a softness welcoming to their weary feet. Near the door leading to the rest of the house, they saw a young woman with chin-length black hair and piercing violet eyes. Her slender fingers tapped on her fuchsian dress impatiently.

"Lust, Gluttony," the woman said. "Good, you're back in time to hear the news." She paused to make sure she had their attention, then continued. "We've heard news that Scar plans on turning the city of Lior into the next site for the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. As a result, I have told Pride to hold the military back from entering the city for the time being." Her eyes narrowed until they were almost slits. "Scar plans on using the Amestrian military as his ingredients."

Lust digested this information carefully. "So we won't be moving forward as planned, Dante?" she asked.

"No," Dante replied. "We will wait it out until Scar gives it up for lack of human ingredients."

Lust's eyes shifted to the side. "I will go speak with Pride about this new development. Come, Gluttony."

The other homunculus dropped his jaw and followed after the willowy homunculus dumbly as she opened the door and left the main hall. His arms swung at his side uselessly and his feet barely picked up as they lumbered along. However, Lust didn't care about his appearance because she knew now that he would always be at her side and protect her in his own way.

They soon entered a darkened room, where they discovered Pride waiting for them. He was dressed in his military uniform, a royal blue that had medals decorated on his chest and white lining the sleeves and collar. A black patch covered his eye holding the oroborous sign, and his wrinkled skin, so different from the smooth skin of the others, showed that he was the perfect homunculus, the only one created that could age and reproduce like a normal human. At times, Lust even wondered if he could love, something she yearned to do, but she feared asking him, for part of her didn't want to know the answer.

"We are not going to help Scar?" Lust asked as soon as she was inside. From the window, the moon shone on her features, illuminating the part of her face not in the shadows so that she looked almost like a yin yang. Her gloved hands nervously ran through the curled ends of her hair, and she began to pace. "We should, shouldn't he? Because he's so close to creating the Stone?"

Pride merely looked at her. "You heard from Mother?"

"Yes," Lust said simply. "And I don't agree with her. I think we should create the Stone as soon as possible. The military should be sent in."

Pride turned away and looked out the window at the desert. "No," he said. "I will not risk sending the military in. Even though I do not like humans, we have no way of getting the Stone once it is created from Scar. Instead, we must somehow get close to him and ensure ourselves a chance of getting our hands on the Stone once it's created." He turned back to look at Lust. "But until then, we leave him alone."

"All right then," Lust said defiantly. "If you won't help him, _I_ will."

"There are rumors that you harbor feelings for the Scarred One," Pride said coldly, turning so his entire body was facing the woman. "Is that why you want to help him?"

Lust said nothing, but her fingers twitched.

"Mother won't approve of this," Pride warned quietly.

"Gluttony, will you help me?" Lust asked, turning to the fat homunculus next to her as she evaded Pride's statement.

Gluttony said nothing, only cowered in fear. "Sc-scary!" was the only sound he would utter. His entire body shook, and Lust knew then that she would get no help from him. She would have to do it herself.

"Fine," she said shortly and whirled around, leaving the room. Before she closed the door behind her, she felt Pride's eye on her back and a shudder of fear trickled down her spine. But then she remembered why she wanted to create the Stone, and proudly she straightened her back and walked out.

x x x x x

_Would I really be able to pull this off? I knew I was going to be punished when I returned, but I found myself not caring. Somehow, Scar was connected to the person I used to be, so I wanted to speak to him. A deep sense of yearning was growing in my breast, and I knew that Scar would be the answer to all my questions. _

_I wasn't sure if I could do this alone. I had been hoping Gluttony would help me because I could usually count on him in those kind of situations, but this time was different. However, if Gluttony didn't want to help me, I wasn't going to force him. I actually pitied him because he had so much to fear while I had nothing. When one knew more about the world, one could come to understand just how simple it was. However, Gluttony's child-like mind could distinguish few things, so he was frightened of more things than I, who understood far more than him. _

_Perhaps I would ask Envy. I had the feeling he would jump at this chance because then he could wave the Stone in front of the Elric brothers and laugh at them because he had the Stone but they didn't. _

_Something nagged at me though. If Scar created the Philosopher's Stone, would Envy kill him? If he did, all of my answers would die with the Ishbalite man, something I couldn't have happen. Perhaps this was a task better done by myself. Or was I only feeling this way because of what Pride had said, about me having feelings for Scar? But that was impossible, since I had only met him a few times! Besides.. _

_I shook my head. No. When I met Scar, I would know how I truly felt. And I would have to trust that I myself would know what to do. _

x x x x x

After Gluttony left, he turned his blank eyes onto Pride. "Pride?" he asked, sticking his thumb in his mouth like a child. "What are you going to do?"

The fierce, strange look in Pride's single eye instantly transformed into his usual genial one. "Do as we were ordered, Gluttony," Pride answered. "Keep our troops from entering Lior so they won't be sacrificed in vain."

Gluttony's eyes widened. "Will the Scarred One really be there?"

Pride chuckled. "He will be. And he'll create the Philosopher's Stone for us." He turned from Gluttony and looked out the window at the night sky. "It's a good thing Lust is going over actually; she can steal the Stone for us once it's created." The homunculus looked over to see if Gluttony was going to continue speaking, but the other homunculus had drool sliding down from his mouth. It was slowly gathering into a puddle, and Gluttony didn't even noticed.

Pride snorted. Dante had tried to explain why they needed Gluttony, but she had failed for the most part. So he was supposed to be the Philosopher's Stone, so what? Was there any other use for him? All he did was eat people or whatever he could get his hands on. And he hung around Lust all day like a simpering, whimpering dog.

He heard a sniffle and turned around. Pride raised his eyebrows. Was Gluttony really crying? He wouldn't have thought he had the capability to do so, considering he couldn't even control his own drool. Did this strange character actually care for the beautiful woman he worked with? Pride wasn't sure, but he didn't think he wanted to find out.

x x x x x

_I could feel Pride's eye on me. I knew he thought just as badly of me as Envy did. But all that mattered to me was what Lust thought. _

_I wanted to follow her. I really did. But I couldn't get my body to move. My Sin self refused to budge, knowing that if it did, it would be killed by Scar. And my Sin self was frightened to death of Scar, as scared as it could be without actually dying. _

_I cursed myself. Why was I so weak? Why couldn't I even fight against the part of me that had been domineering over me since my creation? Would I ever be able to conquer the Gluttony in me? I had hoped that when Lust came back to me, I would start to change, but I hadn't. I hadn't changed one bit. _

_And all I could do was watch her leave, knowing that I had failed her_


	7. Chapter Seven

Some of you may recognize part of this chapter. Apologies for taking so long to upload; I've barely had time to think about writing this summer. Stupid APs XP

**Chapter Seven**

It was the usual emptiness. No matter what he tried, he could not get rid of it. It lingered inside him, ate his soulless body up until he could feel it gnawing at him from under his skin. He could stab himself, but it wouldn't do anything. The only thing that temporarily relieved him was hunting a victim down and killing him, enjoying the person's last few moments on earth, watching him scream in pain, and seeing his face twist into the most grotesque expression possible.

He shook himself free and rolled a toothpick around in his mouth. Now was not the time to concentrate about that. He had to-

Suddenly, the sound of quiet footsteps broke through his thoughts. The homunculus turned around and saw Lust walk up to him. She looked fine, as if she had not just gone through a life-or-death situation, and her stride was proud, stiff. Envy wondered what could have happened to cause the stern, beautiful look in her normally stony eyes. The oaf wasn't at her side for once, and he wondered if Gluttony had really taken what he had said to heart. If so, had he told Lust the reason for his isolation? Was this why she was coming toward him so tautly?

"Lust," he called out playfully. "What are you doing outside unescorted so late at night? Don't you fear being raped or something? A lady like you needs a guardian."

Lust gave him a look. "Does someone like me really need an escort?" She was referring to the nails that shot out of her hands and could instantly kill anyone she pierced if she chose.

Envy laughed. "No. Of course not."

The woman reached him and took a seat next to him. She looked up at the shadowed skies for a moment before continuing to speak. "Envy," she said slowly, as if she was testing each word. "I'm going tomorrow to Lior. Will you come with me?"

Envy figured out what she was talking about and looked at Lust in surprise. "You're going to help Scar create the Stone?"

Lust nodded. "He's our best chance right now. He already has part of it in his arm, too."

Envy said nothing, although he was sorely tempted to tell her that it was self-defeating to trust humans. They always ended up betraying the people trusting them, so what was the point in even trying? Humans were weak. He had realized that long ago, and it was something Lust needed to learn if she intended on surviving. If one turned too human, death was the only answer. To be controlled by his own emotions meant to Envy that he was turning into the same kind of person his bastard of a father was. And he would _never_ let himself be compared similarly to that man.

"Do what you want, but don't say I didn't warn you," the homunculi said with a nonchalant shrug. He would show her he didn't care about her. He would show her that he could be single-minded when she could not. He would show her that he was all the things she was not and would therefore succeed where she would not.

Lust regarded him almost curiously. "You know," she started to say softly. "Sometimes I wonder who's better off. You. Or me." A sad smile came over her face. "Guess we'll find out soon."

x x x x x x

_So I wasn't going to receive any help from him either. I could have expected that. He wasn't the kind of person to help humans unless it benefited him. He hated so much that he couldn't look past them and see that they _could_ be relied on, at least when they too were searching for their hearts' desires. Scar wanted the Philosopher's Stone, and I could count on him to create it. Whether or not he would give it to me though, well, I could always kill him if I needed to. _

_But then, I wondered, did I really want to kill him? He had recognized my face, had known me before I died. His own face had distorted into something almost unrecognizable. I had seen hatred in that expression and I wanted to know why. Why had his face changed so when I had first seen adoration mixed with surprise? Did he know something about me that even I didn't know?_

_Suddenly, I was glad I was doing this alone. Alone I could work without distractions and without thinking of what my partner thought of me. This was one of the most reassuring things about Gluttony; because he never voiced his thoughts, I did not have to worry about his criticizing opinions. I could rely on him to stay by my side and support me in just about any way. A smile rose on my lips. He was almost like my silent guardian, steadfast and single-minded so much that I could count on him to do whatever he wanted, one of which I knew was to help me. The refusal to help me today was one of the first times he had failed me. _

_I frowned. Was it really so good to be single-minded sometimes? Yes, it got things done, but what if one lost himself getting it done? What if a person got so single-minded that he forgot his original purpose? Would anything he had accomplished be worth it then? _

_I shook my head violently. This wasn't the time to get distracted. But, gnawed a strange thought in my mind, what would I do when I got the Stone? _

x x x x x x

Envy stared at the rising sun hatefully. Why. Why did it have to brighten the skies like this when he wanted it to be forever dark as it was for him? The taste of the toothpick was supposed to be bitter, but he had no sense of taste. Finally, Envy had chewed on it enough. He spat it out and wiped his mouth. He had found the wooden stick in a foodstand selling peppers last night during the night market before Lust had come along. Wrath had been with him, and he had been teaching the younger homunculus the reins of the place. It still amazed him how much the other had changed after eating the red stones, making him wonder what he himself could have been like in his past life.

Envy laughed. No matter. It had to be better than the life he led now. He still remembered the first time that bastard had taunted him, saying, "I am your father and I wish you were dead," into his ear. That "man" had said that he, Envy, was his unforgivable sin. Fury swept through Envy. Wasn't it enough that he had abandoned him in the first place? Did Hohenheim really have to rub it in? Envy punched the wall, causing debris to shower down on him. It wasn't fair. Hell, it wasn't fair. Had he done anything to deserve the shit he had to go through besides die?

Dawn was beginning to break over the city borders. Envy turned to watch the sun, longing to knock it out of the sky. He wanted others to experience the darkness he was and had been in for so long. It wasn't fair that he was the only one with so many shadows in his sky. He didn't care what Lust or any of the others said. Everyone else had so much more than him.

His fists clenched and unclenched. Even if he was supposedly immortal, Envy felt like he had been cheated. So what if he could live forever? Lust had once said to him that the reason why she wanted to become human was so she could die. Was this true in his case, too?

Envy laughed. No. The reason why he even stayed with their little group was because it was the fastest and only way he could think of getting revenge on his damned "father" and his stupid half-brothers. Besides, he had stopped feeling a long time ago. It wasn't like he was missing anything either; if he went through the turmoil Lust went through, he would be weak. So weak he would never be able to deliver the killing blow when it was needed. And that was something Envy never wanted to happen to him.

A rooster walked across the roof, ruffling its feathers and flapping its red wings. It opened its mouth to welcome the new day. Suddenly irritated, Envy shot forward and seized the rooster. The crow was stopped mid-call, and the homunculus's slender fingers wrapped around the bird's neck, slowly tightening and squeezing the esophagus.

"Why should you have life?" he asked bitterly. The dry feeling of the toothpick was still in his mouth, and he hated it. He wanted to spit it out in a shower all over the bird, but it was already out of his mouth. "Why can't you be me?"

One finger slid across the smooth feathers on the bird's head and came to a stop on the neck. "People like you. They hate me. And for good reason," Envy said. He waved his free hand and his face twisted into a cruel grimace as he stared at the rooster. "I don't give a damn about them, and they don't give a damn about me." His violet eyes narrowed as they bored into the rooster's eyes. "Why do you taunt me like this?"

It was as if he were speaking to himself. The bird's beady black eyes were as blank as his own. It struggled incessantly against Envy's rampant onslaught, unable to recognize why it had been picked out for torment this wonderful day.

"I'm created out of another person's sin, but people despise me, not the creator. What's the fairness in that?" Envy demanded. He lowered his hand and one could almost taste his despair. Then he raised his head and smiled.

"Hey, bird," Envy said sweetly. "How nice of you to drop by." As he spoke his last sentence, he broke the bird's neck and tossed it off the roof to the ground. "Yes.. drop by," he whispered softly as a horrific scream echoed through the early dawn. A smirk danced across his twisted face, and he laughed. "How I love that sound," he said to himself.

Then he turned and left.

x x x x x x

_I would never show weakness. If I did, my life would be lost, and I would be nothing more than the ant-like humans that crawled on the earth. I was **me**! I was strong, independent, I was-_

_I didn't know we could cry._


	8. Author's Note

ZOMG AUTHOR'S NOTE!!!

I am still alive.

Yes.

And to all of you who have been following this story, I am sincerely sorry for taking so long to write the next chapter. I have been really busy with school and whatnot. Rawrr.

So..

Guess what?

I'm writing Chapter Eight as I speak now! And it's getting pretty darn long. Since I'm at school and don't have access to the FMA show, you will have to wait a little while before I can get the chapter completely finished. Heh. Don't worry. It's just a dialogue thing I need to check, not a huge plot.

So.. once again, thank you if you have been reading this story faithfully, thank you for not bugging me about updating, and if you're a new reader,

Thank you for reading. I hope you all are enjoying the story so far. I know I'm having lots of fun.

And guess what? I think I really hit on something while I was writing.

And while I'm at it, Ling! Ling from the FMA manga rocks. If you have any Ling fanfiction, please let me know. I'm in the process of rebuilding my Ling shrine and need some fanfiction. Muahaha. Or just any media related to him in general. If you would like to donate, is the link (replace the at).

Hahaha, see you guys in a day or two again!

- MercuryMoon

P.S. I apologize for disappointing anyone who thought this was an actual update. However, I hope you will be satisfied with the chapter when it is done and uploaded!


	9. Chapter Eight

YES!!! I managed to keep my promise! I managed to finish this chapter before the end of today! W00t! Ok. Anyway. It's been three months since I last uploaded, this story has now been on the web for over two years, and MAN was this chapter fun to write. I've been wanting to do it ever since I started chapter three and I finally got there. Yay!

So yes. My style has changed slightly. And if you want to know, the thing that made this chapter really fun was how I realized a bunch of stuff while I was writing it out. Anyway, I shall stop blabbering and let you read. oo

_Disclaimer: Full Metal Alchemist and all its characters belong to Hiromu Arakawa and all other respective owners. Some of the lines in this chapter are from the anime as this story is based directly off the show. Please keep that in mind._**  
**

**Chapter Eight**

Lust ran. She raced through the city, adrenaline pumping through her bloodless veins. She could feel that something was going to happen soon. Before it was too late, she had to find Scar. He held the secrets to her past and she wanted to know them. And she wanted to get to him before anyone else did. The Philosopher's Stone! That would give her all the answers she had ever wanted! And if she was lucky and they had the real thing, she could finally become a human again.

Up ahead, she caught flashes of red light. Scar! He was fighting with someone! From the explosions in the distance, it was Kimbley, a state alchemist who had a reputation for turning humans into living bombs. Quickly she sped up. If he managed to get to Scar before she did, things could get ugly. Kimbley was in some ways Pride's ally, so she would have to figure out a way to end things before either of the humans got killed.

Silence stretched across the area. There was fresh blood in the air and she could smell death all around. Keg powder was heavy all around and she could feel it on her skin as she walked toward her goal.

Finally. She had found him.

He was kneeling next to the Full Metal's brother. The one made of armor. Someone as immortal as she was. For once, the Ishbalite's man's face was gentle. It was worried even. He had a hand on Al's armor, which was for some reason slowly turning black.

"I may be able to transmute you to a different kind of metal," he was saying to the metal boy. "I'm just worried that I won't be doing it correctly."

Lust stepped forward. "I advise you don't," she said easily, although her voice wasn't as strong as she wanted it. "Your arm knows only how to destroy. You haven't had any of the training to reconstruct."

A tic in his cheek moved. "Homunculus. _That_ homunculus."

She ignored his words and continued. Best to strike him where it hurt most. Maybe then she could get him to do what she wanted him to do. "Ed may be able to transmute the metal, but you?" she snickered and walked up to him. "No."

"Transmute it into something else?" he asked, and she knew she had caught his attention. Obviously he had never thought of such a thing. He was a human though, and not exactly the smartest one either, so that wasn't a surprise.

"Let's go," she said and took his hand with both of hers, ignoring the stunned gasp he emitted. "Let's go create the Philosopher's Stone. That is your goal, isn't it?"

"Why do you look like her?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Loathing crept into his tone. "You look like her! My brother's love!" He yanked free angrily and he exploded. "I _know_ you can't be her, yet your appearances are so similar! She would never say something like that!"

Lust glared at him, feeling something quite similar to hatred in her heart. How dare he, a mere human, judge her? Then her eyes softened. She couldn't afford getting angry at the one man who could possibly help her. "I don't remember who I once was. I was hoping you would be able to tell me."

He turned away abruptly. "I thought-"

Confusion clouded Lust's violet eyes. Half of her wanted to force him to abandon the boy, half of her wanted to suddenly comfort him. He was as lonely as she was, Lust realized. He was as lonely as all the homunculi were, only he had it worse than they did. He was an outcast wherever he went; at least the Sins could count on each other wherever they were.

"She's dead," she heard him say under his breath. "She will never be back."

"What if you gave me a body?" Lust wanted to know, her tone teasing. "If we used the Philosopher's Stone to turn me human? Then wouldn't it be the same?"

"No!"

Lust jerked back and almost shot her nails out.

"No," Scar said more calmly, although his voice was still tense. "Once a human is dead, she can never be brought back to life."

Lust was silent. Had Dante lied to them then? Could they never change and return to their former selves? Was all of this searching a lie? Then she noticed that Scar had placed his remaining arm on Al's blackening body. "Wait, what are you doing?!"

"Stop!" Scar shouted, and he thrust the necklace out, stopping Lust in her tracks. He held it there. "I'm going to save this boy," he said.

Lust started to say something but hesitated when she saw the solid determination in Scar's red eyes. Even his namesake stood out boldly on his dark face. He was challenging her, seeing how she would react. They both knew she could easily spear him before he could do anything, and this was the ultimate test. If she killed Scar, the homunculi would once again have Al as a hostage so they could try to force Ed to create the Philosopher's stone. But at the sight of Scar risking his own life for a child he barely knew and had once hated, Lust knew she would not be able to raise a hand. She also found that she did not want to.

The moment having passed, Scar turned his attention back to the job at hand and placed his hand on the armor's cool surface. He wove the necklace through the belt. Already the armor was beginning to heat up and the man feared he was too late. He had to try though, because the armor had a brother, and even if that brother was a State Alchemist, he did not want the two to suffer the pain he had gone through when he had lost his own brother.

Red blinded him. He began to scream as his tendons tore apart and broke free from his body. Finally! The sensation he had craved! The sensation of being paid over and over again for his sins! He could bear the pain because it was his freedom. He could bear it because he sensed his own end coming soon and he wanted to do something for the two brothers that he had never been able to do for his own brother.

His arm disintegrated completely and he gasped. "It is done." Groggily he got to his feet. Blood oozed out of his stump of an arm, and he clenched his teeth together to prevent himself from screaming in pain. The circle that was now on the Full Metal's brother. Finally he was free of its curse.

"This arm was once my brother's arm," he explained through gritted teeth, although he didn't know why he was telling her. She meant nothing to him, but maybe it was because he wanted someone else to know his story. He could feel it in his bones that today would be his last day of living. "And this transmutation circle was once something he created."

"So that he could create the Stone inside his own body?" Lust asked. Her eyes narrowed.

"Wait, what do you intend on doing?" Lust demanded before he had taken even three steps.

Scar stopped. "I need to transmute the boy into something else or he will explode."

"So you plan on changing him into the Philosopher's Stone?" Lust's eyes narrowed angrily. "That's not convenient for me!"

Scar started walking again. "If the plan works, the Elric brothers can keep the Stone and do with it as they wish."

Black lances suddenly surrounded him and his eyes slid backward to look at the woman. She was angry, he knew, because he refused to be a pawn of hers. "You think killing me will profit you?" he asked.

He knew her answer when she retracted her nails.

"Fine," he heard her say. "If I get the real thing, I'll use the Stone however I want."

The corner of his mouth went up. Well, he had certainly been thrown together with this woman in a strange way. In this way he had finally beaten his brother. Even if _she_ was no longer alive, he was still with her in a sense. He was enjoying his brother's transmutation and he cursed himself. He cursed himself for the joy in his heart at seeing his beloved's face.

"If you're coming with me, you'd better be careful," Scar finally said grimly. "I'm going to do some running." Then he began walking again.

There was no other path she could take now, Lust realized as she watched him go on. By refusing to force Scar to create the real Philosopher's Stone for her, she had forsaken her own path. And suddenly, she did not want to go down her original path, especially if she was remembering again. She could almost feel his arms around her, and flashes of their time spent together played like a movie in her head.

Lust nodded once. "I'm ready," she said, then followed Scar.

x x x x x

_I was changing. I could feel it in myself. Perhaps it was because my memories were returning to me. Perhaps that meant I was becoming more human. Did I really need the Philosopher's Stone then? If I could regain my memories on my own, what then separated me from humans? From Scar? From the Elric brothers?_

_I bit my lip. Did anyone else in my strange family feel this way? Did Envy or Gluttony? I had never seen a single sign of it, but I could never read Gluttony's mind and Envy disguised his true feelings with his hatred. _

_Humans._

_They were the cause of all our pain, yet we wanted to be like them again. Why? Because we wanted something so unattainable? Weren't humans like that, too? Didn't they want things they couldn't have? _

_Were we really so different from humans then? _

x x x x x

A million questions ran through her head as they ran through the streets of Lior. She had no clue where Scar was heading, but she assumed he knew because he ran with a purpose.

He was.. unlike from anyone else she had ever met. They were connected together by his dead brother.

"There he is!" someone suddenly shouted.

Lust turned to see whom it was and was bombarded with an array of shots. She threw her arm up to protect her face, but suddenly something leaped in front of her.

It was his back. It jerked as the bullets entered his body. She could smell his sweat as it slid down his face in his effort to protect her. And protect her it did, for not a single bullet got through him and entered her.

The shots ended and Scar slid to his knees. Bullet holes adorned his body, red against green, and his eyes clouded over.

Lust propped him up, trying to ignore the blood splattered all over his clothes. "Idiot! I don't die so easily!"

He smiled slightly. "My body just moved on its own when it saw you in danger."

Then he collapsed in her arms, and Lust felt a cold anger stir deep inside her. How.. dare they!

Her eyes narrowed and the sound of knives piercing into flesh echoed through the city.

x x x x x x

_Love. All it did was complicate things. It was best to be indifferent. If Scar had never loved the woman I had once been, he wouldn't be dying now. If Scar's brother hadn't loved her, I wouldn't have been created and Scar would still have his brother._

_I shuddered. I never wanted to feel that feeling, yet I could already sense that it was slipping into my mind._

_Love. What a dangerous emotion it was._

x x x x x

They found their way to an abandoned house. Scar's blood was dripping all over her black clothes now, and she was getting more and more worried. What if it was too late? He couldn't die now. She had finally found a link to her past and-

"Those brothers, they live for each other," Scar said softly, his gruff voice interrupting her thoughts. "The elder for the younger, the younger for the elder."

Lust's eyes widened. "Is that why you did that?"

"I hated my brother for everything he did," Scar continued without hearing Lust's words. "As a priest, he was supposed to protect the people, but he spent all his time studying _alchemy_." Scar spat those words out. "Instead of fighting for our country, he spent his time trying to-"

His voice choked and he closed his eyes. "I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but I never could. It ate me up everyday after he saved my life, but I could never once, not even to his grave, tell him how I truly felt."

Lust then understood Scar's true motive in transmuting the circle onto Al's body. It was so the two brothers would not be separated like he had been from his own brother. She smiled inside herself. The Elric brothers. They seemed to touch the lives of everyone they came across. Even Scar, a serial killer who had killed State Alchemists, was unable to escape their sweet innocence. He too wanted to help them, even though he would die in the attempt.

Scar started to get up. "Leave," he said. "It's time I finish what I started."

"Wait!" Lust called out. "What is your real name?"

He looked at her for a long time and she never forgot what he said.

"Our names are given to us by God," he said. "I gave it up when I turned my back on Him."

Then he looked at her one last time, and Lust didn't know what to do. He seemed to be searching her soul, and whether or not he was satisfied by the time he was done she did not know. All she knew was that he slipped outside before she could do anything and left her by herself.

Lust glanced at her hands, her hands which had just a few moments ago killed several men. And she wondered what her own real name had been. She had never had the chance to ask Scar and now she would never know.

"There he is!"

The soldiers outside shouted their exuberance at finding their target. There was the sound of gunshots and Lust knew she would never see the Ishbalite again. A lump rose in her throat. Why did she feel so sad when she realized that?

She turned away from the door, unable to listen anymore. "Farewell.. Scar."

x x x x x

_What is a name? It is something that identifies us right from the start. We lose it, we lose all sense of identity. We become someone else entirely._

_Was this what had happened to the Sins then? Was this why we were so tainted? Because we were homunculi, we had lost our original names? But why? It was not our fault we were what we were. We were not the masters of Sin, we were not the ones who had committed the forbidden act of human transmutation._

_So why did we lose our names? The names that had been given to us by our mothers and fathers? The names we had carried until we had died? **Why** did we lose it all for something we were not guilty of?_

_Then.. a shudder ran down my back. Wrath. He had been born free until he had eaten the Philosopher's Stone. Only then had he become what he was now._

_So that was what it was._

_The humans who transmuted us, tried to bring our dead bodies back to life, had paid for their sins by losing something precious. For the Full Metal's brother, it had been his entire body. For the Full Metal himself, he had lost an arm and leg so that he could rescue his brother from the Gate. They had both paid a price for the sin of creating Sloth._

_And we. We the homunculi. We had been created sinless, pure, like a baby. We were blank slates, but we lost it all once we swallowed Sin in its purest form. To take a life or many lives for one's personal benefit.. that was the worst crime of all. Forget thievery. Forget dishonesty. Rape? It was nothing compared to what we had done. To have willingly consumed so many lives, even if we hadn't known it at the time.. that meant we had to live with what we had done for the rest of eternity. We had to lose our names and gain new ones, ones given to us by a woman who believed she was God. Maybe that was why we were soulless; so we wouldn't try to commit suicide and then not suffer. _

_No wonder why humans hated us so. I was starting to hate myself and who I was, too. And I was at a loss, because I didn't know how to return myself with the person I had once been. Scar had loved that woman. Could he, if I somehow found the person I once was, be able to love her again? When I found him in the afterlife, if there was one for a woman like me, would he finally accept me where he had rejected me before and tell me his true name?_

_Maybe then I would be fully complete. Maybe then I would know my true identity. But it was a lot of maybes. Perhaps I would never know._

* * *

Yeah. I thought I'd thank people here since no one's going to want to read through them in the beginning. It's people like these who inspire me to continue writing. Muahaha. _  
_

Shikabane-Mai - for sending me that last review and letting me know there were still new people who would want to read the story.  
Hoppy-chan - for sticking with the story even though my uploading is horrendously slow. I'm annoyed about that, too.  
Gwenivear Greenleaf - for the same reason. I thought you would never come back after leaving your first review, but you surprised me. Thanks!  
LuciousLadyLucius - Glad you liked the bird scene. That was always one of my favorite drabbles about Envy that I wrote.  
Chibi-Heartless - xD Envy is fun to torture, especially since I see him as a lot gentler than other people.  
Iloveinuyasha44 - Hope you liked this chapter XP  
sveta89 - for the same reason as Hoppy and Gwenivear.  
Migchao - for the really nice review you left me. Hope you're not too disappointed with the way this chapter turned out in terms of relationships though!

And yes, I come up with all these random analyses by myself. Now whether I'm right or wrong.. pssh, doesn't matter! I'm free to interpret these people any way I choose!

Until next time,  
Mercury


	10. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

The skies were crimson that day. Even deep down in the underground city, they could see that it was red, a red that painted everything with bold, cruel strokes. The Stone had finally been created.

Of course, there was the fact that it was not a complete Stone, but that did not matter. All that mattered was that it had been created. If it was incomplete, it could still be completed. The hard part of the job was done. All that needed to be done was have Gluttony devour the Stone so that it could be finished.

Envy smiled to himself as he pushed himself off the sunken wall and began to walk toward the ray of light ahead of him. So Lust had helped Scar. Big deal. Certainly she couldn't feel anything for the man. She would soon realize the stupidity and unreliability that plagued humans all the time. They were weak, unable to detach themselves from the real world and therefore trapped within themselves. Unlike him. He could do it, he could be emotionally detached, and hell to anyone who tried to tell him not to.

Yeah, he was as unyielding toward humans as the desert. Anyone could tell him that, and he wouldn't give a damn. What did he care for their opinions anyway? If he had, he would have killed himself centuries ago.

Envy paused at the top of the stairs and stared down below him at the shadowed city. It was a ghost, only a remnant of the great city it had once been. Just like what Lior was going to turn into once the homunculi were through with it. Wow. It reminded him of what he thought the depths of Hell could look like, but then again, he was a homunculus. He'd seen Hell and come back from it a long time ago. In fact, if he wanted to put it in a cliché, he had been spit out by Hell. After all, why else was he back with the living even though he was dead already?

He laughed. What was he thinking? Was he calling himself a zombie or something? That would definitely be something new. Perhaps he could tell Lust his new joke. If she showed up.

**x x x x x**

_We'd reached it, we'd finally reached that supposedly unobtainable goal. I couldn't wait to laugh at my brothers and wave in their face that **we** had gotten the Stone while they were still struggling in their humanity and trying to be moral when morality would never work in these situations. _

_It made me snicker. If Ed had transcended his moral boundaries, he would have been able to create the Philosopher's Stone months ago. But no, he had decided to stay trapped within his own mind and had sacrificed his desires for something completely useless. _

_But perhaps he had been smart, because we would have stolen the Stone from right under his nose. We had been the ones forcing him to create it after all by holding his brother hostage. We would have done it, too, if it hadn't been-_

_I stopped myself. It was no use reminiscing about things that couldn't be changed. I lifted my face up to the sky and embraced the heat, spreading my arms out as I did so. Wonderful. The sun invigorated my body, giving me energy that being underground didn't. It was odd, of course, because I certainly wasn't one of the sun's creatures, but it was still treating me like one. _

_Hmph. As if I cared. I reached up toward the sun as if I were going to yank it out of the sky and cup it to my breast. It would serve the humans right if I destroyed their only source of life. _

_After all-_

_I stopped myself again. I was becoming like the humans I hated, thinking way too much, plotting, planning, imagining things that would never come to be._

**x x x x x**

Lust watched as the city was enveloped in a wave of red. Just a few minutes ago, Scar had been alive, she thought. Now he was dead. Humans were so mortal, but perhaps it was better that way, because their suffering was only transient. She on the other hand..

She sighed deeply. What did it matter? The past wasn't something she could change. Scar was dead now, his body consumed by the Philosopher's Stone. How many souls was that now? How many had been sacrificed to create the Stone? And for what reason, Lust wondered. Was it only so that they could become human? She had never questioned Dante's motives, but now she was starting to. Surely Dante couldn't be _that_ good-hearted. What reason did she have?

Her eyes slid toward the desert, which was ironically the only peaceful thing in the sea of red. She could feel a storm coming up, perhaps rising so that it could cover all the destruction that had happened in Lior. Perhaps it was a fitting thing, that Nature always covered up Man's mistakes. It was natural after all.

Lust paused. Up ahead of her, she saw Alphonse. She could feel it pulling to her, the Philosopher's Stone. It was tugging her, drawing her like a moth to a light. She was afraid to approach it for fear of seeing what Alphonse had become, but she could not help it. It felt so natural to be walking toward the life pulsing in the Stone. Was it because she lacked life then that she was so drawn toward it? It would have made sense, because wasn't it a common human saying that opposites attract? Life. Death. Neither could live without the other. Equivalent exchange. Greed for kindness, good for evil, death for life.

Her brow smoothed out then. So Scar's sacrifice had been worth it after all. Scar had given his life to the two brothers so that they could have another chance at life. Even at this distance, she could see the glow of the Philosopher's Stone inside his body. It was not a good sign, because if she could see it, others could see it. She had to warn them, warn them that they had to leave this area. She could not let Scar's sacrifice be in vain. He had lost everything for redemption, and Lust found that she did not want the same thing to happen to the Elric brothers, enemies or not. To lose someone important.. she was now just discovering how painful it was.

If it was in her power, she would prevent it. It would be her way of honoring Scar and his brother.

**x x x x x**

_This would be my redemption, my chance to make up for all the sins I had committed. If I could help the two brothers, maybe I could return to the person I had once been. _

_Fat chance. I knew that would never happen. Scar was right; how could I be someone I barely remembered being? Especially if I no longer possessed her soul? _

_But what really was a soul? Why did the homunculi have none? It couldn't be so we wouldn't commit suicide, could it? And it couldn't be so that we couldn't have a conscience, because I was fast developing one now. So what was it? It seemed to me that a conscience was what humans called a soul. If so, what really distinguished us from humans if we too could develop a soul? _

_I stared at my hands, inspecting my nails. It might have been stretching it a bit, but that was what normal girls did. What did normal girls dream about? What did they wish for? _

_Again I thought of Scar. He had said there was no way he could love me the way I was now, but why had he jumped in front of me that time? Had he been lying? Was this only my girlish self hoping that he had been lying? Did I really want to be loved that much? If he saw what I was doing now, would he accept me?_

_My thoughts moved to Envy. How would he react when he found out what I had done? I knew Gluttony to say nothing, just as he had always done, but Envy?_

_He would probably kill me. _

_Why? _

_Because it didn't matter what my reasons were. It was the simple fact that I was helping the humans he hated most that he would kill me. Later he might regret it, but in the midst of all his passionate, unbridled fury, he wouldn't be able to stop himself. Wouldn't be able to reason with the facts. _

_Why?_

_Because he had never learned to let go of his hatred for Hohenheim. Perhaps it was something to be expected. The person he had trusted most in his life had let him down and left him to the dogs. His anger had to be rooted in fear, fear of abandonment, misunderstanding, fear of what it was about himself that made him so despicable. _

_I had to smile to myself then. Why wasn't I afraid? Wasn't this supposed to be something I was scared of? So why was I not trembling in place, shaking, unable to move? Was it because I was finally on the right track? That this was something I was meant to do?_

_If it was, I would gladly face the consequences, just as Scar had. Because that was what we did. Because that was what humans did. Because even if I could never return to the person I had once been, I could at least do my best._

**x x x x x**

As Envy watched, the sky slowly lightened to its usual color, and the red glow faded. He smirked. Great. All he had to do was find Lust now, who would have the Philosopher's Stone with her. His feet began to track across the hot desert sand, causing little whirlwinds of gold to swirl around his legs. The heat didn't bother him at all, even though it would have caused a normal human to melt, but hey, he wasn't a normal human. Why did he have to feel things the way he did?

Off in the distance, he saw a metal figure crossing the desert from Lior. Envy frowned. Strange. Was that the metal boy? But why? Envy had known that his half-brothers would be in the city, but he certainly hadn't expected them to come out of the destruction _alive_. Then again, they were both alchemists, and they knew what the creation of the Philosopher's Stone could do. No doubt they had protected some humans. He started to approach them, then froze when he saw a familiar, beautiful figure reach them first. Envy's eyes flickered. Lust. What business did she have with them? Was she going to steal the Stone away?

He could see her. She wasn't lashing out with her magnificent nails; she was pointing toward Resembool instead! She was too far away for him to read what she was saying, but he had a feeling it wasn't something he was going to like.

Lust walked away from them, and his two brothers stared after her, having as difficult of a time as Envy was having comprehending her actions. He saw the little smile on her face, wondered what it was all about. Why? Why was she betraying them like this?

He started to follow her. Surely she had some sort of explanation? Maybe she was leading them to a trap. Maybe she was doing this so that they wouldn't suspect a thing when the homunculi ambushed them. He clenched his fists. That had to be it! Why else would she dismiss them like that? It was all a cruel trick, one to give them hope, only to crush it by stealing the Stone away from them just when they were about to get all their wishes granted. Envy laughed to himself, wondering why he had even begun to doubt Lust. She surely was a devious one, coming up with such a wicked plan.

She was Lust after all, and he never should have thought she would have turned away from the homunculi's ideals. The old one had, but this new one had never showed any signs of wavering.

Until yesterday.

So it was still possible that she no longer followed their ideas, but he **had** to trust her. If he couldn't, then there could be no one else he could trust, because she was the one person he counted on to always remain the same.

Envy ran across the sands, ignoring the intense heat as his bare feet repeatedly struck the sand. Lust turned around upon hearing his approach and waited for him.

"Nice trick you played there," he said.

"That was no trick," Lust answered. "They have the Philosopher's Stone now, and I will let them use it as they wish. If we need it, we can simply create another one."

"What?!" Envy demanded angrily. "What the hell did you do that for?!"

Lust studied him, saying nothing. Suddenly, Envy was aggravated by the way she was looking at him, as if she were judging him, thinking him less than her because he was not a human lover. So what? He had the right to believe what he wanted to believe! She had never gone through what he had, so what right did she have to judge him?

"We live for such a long time," Lust finally said, lifting her eyes to look at him. She started to smile. "Yet in reality, we're not living at all. Why do we go through this? Why do we not end our lives?" Her gaze pierced into him. "What really is living?"

Envy laughed bitterly, almost unable to believe the words he was hearing from her. He had respected her for so long, but now all he could feel was contempt. He couldn't believe it. She, Lust, of all people. Lust, the one he had thought would agree with him most of all because she wanted just as much as he did.

"Perhaps I should end yours for you?" Envy asked, hoping, praying, that she would give him an opening to forgive her for what she had done.

But once again, Lust said nothing, only stared at him, her eyes unreadable. Then she smiled sadly, causing a chill to run down Envy's spine.

She was going to do it. She was really going to defect. He could feel it in his bones, feel that she was really going to turn away from him.

"Don't do it," Envy warned her. "You won't be able to come back if you do!"

But no answer echoed back to him across the desert. Envy could only allow his fury to consume him, his anger at her betrayal. He had thought this time it would be different, this time, the soul of Lust's Sin would recognize that he had been right, but it was not to be, was it? He would lose her, he would lose what she had once stood for. He would have to kill her again, sever her head from her pale, white body, and watch as her deep, dark, red blood was washed away by the rain. He would be forced to kill her, because it would be a sign of weakness to allow her to live. He could not change himself, not now, even for her, and so he would be unable to let her live the next time he saw her.

"Don't come running back to me!" Envy screamed after Lust's retreating back.

Slowly Lust turned around. "Remember what I said before? About not knowing if which of the two of us were better off?" She studied him. "I think I know now."

The nerve! "I'll kill you first!" he shouted, almost stamping his feet on the hot sand. "_I'll kill you!_"

But instead of responding, Lust simply turned around again and walked away.

The chill going down Envy's spine turned icy. It was happening all over again.. and there was nothing he could do about it. Not a single thing.

* * *

I figured I would let you guys read the story before I said what I wanted to say, which is.. I'm sorry this took so long to get up. I was planning on putting this up way back in the beginnning of February, but.. eek. There were some parts that weren't complete and it all got too deep for me, so I got stuck Glad to say.. I'm finally out of it. And just in time for my birthday. :) It's tomorrow for those of you who are curious to know. I will be.. eighteen on the 7th, the same age as Envy, but.. let's hope I don't end up like him! xD

I'm glad I have gotten this far with the story. It's about halfway done, possibly two-thirds, and I can tell you from starting with the chapter you just read, I'm going to be going into parts that are described in the show such as.. well, you'll see xD

And as always.. thank you those who have been continually supporting this story. You guys ROCK and totally make my day whenever I see a review pop up.

Oh.. and before I forget, two things. One, I edited the first chapter. Two, I made a forum for this fanfic. Seems a little.. err.. what's-the-word, presumptous? But oh well. Now I can post sneak previews for future chapters so you guys will never think I abandoned the story. xQ


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